It has been a long time since my last post. I have written several long missives only to have the net go down and I would lose everything. There is a way to save to something or other but I cannot figure it out. So here we go again. It may be short. Thank you all who respond. It is nice to know people take the time to read and respond.

San Blas to Chacala, seems like a long time ago, was rather uneventful if you do not count in the FOG along the route, the 30 foot high rock directly on my course that never materalized and of course the little bit of wind that was on the nose. That means it was blowing at me and is not very good wind for sailing. I cannot sail direct into the wind because of the lift and seperation caused by..oh..that is a bra commercial. Sorry.

Chacala is a very nice bay ringed by a white beach, palm trees and palapas. This is the first real jungle I have seen here. What a sight. I anchored right off the beach so close that people swam out to talk with me. No, they were not bare breasted beauties bearing baskets of fruit. Just Canadian tourists who wanted to know more about this dark skinned stranger who entered their little slice of paradise.

This place has steep cliffs on both sides with homes hanging off the cliffs and supported by long poles made of wood. Beautiful but not sure I would want to sit on that balcony! Along the way down there were huge estates on the hills and beaches. Who owned these places? I immediately thought of Nascar drivers. I know Greg Biffle likes to fish and has a big boat down here somewhere, probably has a house too. Maybe some movistars, either way there is a lot of money down here as I approach the Gold Coast.

Chacala is the first place I have swam, swum? The water was warm and air was cool 80 degrees. It was great to swim again after all the cold weather we have had along the way. I felt like a Canadian tourist wondering about the other boats that had invaded my little piece of paradise.

There were several other boats in the anchorage some I knew and some I met. We tend to sail in tandem with some boats for awhile, split up and reconnect somewhere down the road. We all, five boats decided to run the surf and have happy hour at one of the 15 or so palapas on the beach. There were not many people here but on weekends and holidays it is like Huntington Beach on the 4th of July. They bus in hoards of folks from as far away as Guadalajara.

At happy hour we all got to know each other and as the sun set below the horizon we toasted all sorts of things. This is what they do at Key West so why not here in the real West?

I could stay here a long time. However, the swell gods decided to make it too uncomfortable and even dangerous since I was so close to the beach and I bailed after two days of fun, sun, palapaing and swimming with the ever present Canadians.